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Messiah Narrowly Misses Out On Second Straight Sweep
Senior Craig Mease finished 3-6 on the day with a pair of RBI.

Fredericksburg, VA — Although spring is still officially weeks away and spots of snow still blotch the Messiah College campus, first-year head baseball coach Bryan Engle already has his club wearing out the rally hats.

The team has collected all of its wins in come-from-behind fashion to date, while a Saturday double-header at the University of Mary Washington held true to the trend — for the most part: Messiah came back from a 2-0 deficit to claim a 4-2 win in Game 1, and responded from a 3-0 margin to claim a 4-3 lead in Game 2, only to falter that advantage away in an eventual 5-4 loss.

Though a split to a program that has won 26 games or more in each of the last seven seasons wasn’t the worst thing the Falcons’ first-year skipper could have surmised, he wasn’t exactly ecstatic, either.

“Today we got a split, and there’s not much more you can say about that,” Engle said. “While we’re very pleased with our progress so far and this was only the second time we’ve been playing outside, we still feel like we had the second game right in our hands. We’ve shown great resiliency in all of our games, but if we want to be a top-caliber team we have to be better at the little things. We felt like we kind of gave one away today.”

After a full-game pitching performance from senior Dan Kern (2-0) helped the Falcons to a 4-2 win in the opener, a final four innings in the day’s second contest led to wild ride for both teams. Sophomore Sheldon Witmer got the starting nod on the mound in Game 2 and struck out six batters in four innings of work, but was pulled after giving up three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.

True to form, Messiah (3-1) responded with a brilliant, three-run fifth inning to tie the game, as a passed-ball strikeout, a walk and a single loaded the bases. After sophomore Jon-Mike Richards walked to give Messiah its first score, senior Craig Mease blasted a single to drive in two more scores.

With two runners still on base, sophomore Adam Ranck struck out while Witmer grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Following a solid fifth inning of pitching work from senior Ben Jordan — he allowed no runs to the Eagles off of just one hit — Engle’s comeback kids were at it again in the top of the sixth, scoring the go-ahead run off a two-out triple from senior Kyle Stuckey. Junior Ben Kirk reached base via a walk, sandwiching a pair of strikeouts. It was then that Stuckey came up huge, blasting a shot to the right field line that drove Kirk across the plate.

Following another strike out to end Messiah’s offensive half of the inning, Engle handed the ball to junior Kurt Heim to close the deal.

Mary Washington (2-1) would not make it easy.

A triple and a double from the Eagles tied the game in the bottom of the sixth, while Messiah went three up, three down in their half of the seventh. After loading the bases with nobody out, the Eagles clean-up hitter drove Heim’s offering into right field to end the game.

“We had things right where we wanted them,” Engle said. “Late in the game I thought we weren’t solid at the plate in regards to our two-strike approaches and execution. We missed a couple of bunts and had just a few miscues that really didn’t help ourselves.”

The Game 2 defeat was especially salty considering the team snuck out with an impressive win in the day’s opener, scoring three runs in the top of the third to take over. Following solo scores from Mary Washington in the first and second innings, Messiah opened the third inning with three straight singles, scoring its first run on an RBI groundout from Ranck.

With two outs retired, sophomore Jordan Zimmerman blasted a shot to left field, driving in two runs to help the Falcons to a 3-2 lead.

A fifth-inning double from Mease provided Messiah with an insurance score, as another groundout RBI from Ranck pushed freshman Jamie Scott across, who reached base on a lead-off walk.

Zimmerman’s single led the way for the club, as the outfielder finished 1-3 from the plate with a pair of RBI. Mease finished 2-3 with a double, while Witmer, Stuckey, Richards and Scott all accounted for singles.

“This was a better team than we played last weekend and unfortunately we couldn’t close it out,” Engle said. “I think we know we can compete with teams like this, which is good. To not play up to our potential and still have a chance to bring two away is a good sign. We’re going to keep working on the little things in knowing that those will either cost us or win us games down the line.”

Messiah will next make its third consecutive weekend trip to Virginia next Saturday, as the team will head to Bridgewater College for another double-header. Game time for the first of two is set for 12 p.m.